Luxembourg Prime Minister Marries Same-Sex Partner

This Wedding Just Made History In Europe

Congratulations are in order for the newly married Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bettel and his longtime partner, architect Gauthier Destenay, whose Friday wedding made Bettel the first European Union leader to marry a same-sex partner, MSNBC reports.

The couple, who wed in Luxembourg's town hall, were among the first gays to legally marry in the mostly Catholic country, which just legalized same-sex unions earlier this year. (Of the EU nations, 8 others--Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom--currently recognize gay marriage, and it appears Ireland may soon follow suit.)

Desteney, who had been civil partners with the prime minister since 2010, was reportedly the one to propose, asking for the political leader's hand just weeks after Luxembourg's parliament lifted the country's ban on gay marriages. Bettel (of course) happily accepted, telling the Los Angeles Times "I have just one life and I don’t want to hide my life.”

Prime Minister Bettel, who came out publicly as gay in 2008, is only the second leader worldwide to enter into a same-sex marriage; the first, Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, wed her long-time partner Jónína Leósdóttir in 2010 while serving as prime minister of Iceland.